Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2003, pages 20-21

Congress Watch

Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran Under Increased Congressional Attack

By Shirl McArthur

In an effort to divert increasing criticism of President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the failures of their policies in the Middle East, their supporters in Congress have stepped up diversionary attacks on other Middle East countries.With the apparent blessing of at least some members of the Bush administration, most of these attacks have been aimed at Syria, but Saudi Arabia and Iran also have been targets.

The focal point of the anti-Syria efforts has been H.R. 1828, the House version of the “Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act.” Described in detail in the June issue of this magazine, it aims to “hold Syria accountable for the serious international security problems it has caused in the Middle East.” On Sept. 16 House Middle East Subcommittee chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) finally held a hearing on the bill, with the only witness being Under Secretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton.The hearing had been scheduled and postponed several times, reportedly because different elements of the administration didn’t agree on what Bolton would say.

At the hearing, Bolton described Syria as a state that both sponsors terrorism and possesses or hopes to possess weapons of mass destruction.But he also described at length the sanctions available to the president under Executive Order 12938, issued in 1994 and amended in 1998, implying, but not specifically saying, that the president already has the authority to impose most of the sanctions specified in H.R. 1828.The most important thing Bolton said, however—and undoubtedly the reason his statement took so long to get through the administration’s revision and clearance process—was that the administration “has no position” on H.R. 1828, thus reversing both the State Department’s and White House’s previous opposition to the bill on the grounds that it ties the president’s hands.

This apparent green light opened the door for relatively rapid consideration and passage of the bill. The full International Relations Committee considered the bill and reported it out to the full House on Oct. 8, with only Reps. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Ron Paul (R-TX) voting no.The version the committee actually reported out was an amended one offered by Ros-Lehtinen, slightly tightening and updating the original bill. It still includes 36 “findings” that amount to an indictment of Syria, and it deletes one “statement of policy” stating that Syria is in violation of U.N. resolutions. As before, it prohibits the export of “dual use” goods to Syria and requires the president to impose any two of six sanctions unless he certifies that Syria has cut all ties to Palestinian resistance groups, withdrawn its troops from Lebanon, stopped developing medium- and long-range ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction, and—a new condition added to the original bill—has “ceased all support for, and facilitation of, all terrorist activities inside of Iraq.” The bill still includes presidential waiver authority. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) proposed an amendment amounting to downgrading of diplomatic relations unless Syria meets certain conditions, but his amendment was defeated 10-22.

 

Bolton reversed both the State Department’s and White House’s previous opposition to the bill.

The full House was scheduled to act on the bill by voice vote Oct. 15, but, no doubt so that AIPAC could take names, Ros-Lehtinen demanded a roll call vote. The final tally was 398 to 4, with five voting “present.” Those voting no were Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Flake, Paul, and Nick Rahall (D-WV). Voting “present” were Reps. Doug Bereuter (R-NE), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), John Dingell (D-MI), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH).

As passed the bill had 298 co-sponsors. The 39 co-sponsors not previously named in this magazine were Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Rob Bishop (R-UT), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Madeleine Bordallo (D-GU), Chris Cannon (R-UT), Steve Chabot (R-OH), Phil Crane (R-IL), Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Nathan Deal (R-GA), Tom DeLay (R-TX), John Doolittle (R-CA), Sam Farr (D-CA), Bob Filner (D-CA), Richard Gephardt (D-MO), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Virgil Goode (R-VA), Kay Granger (R-TX), Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Sam Johnson (R-TX), Mark Kirk (R-IL), John Larson (D-CT), Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Karen McCarthy (D-MO), Gary Miller (R-CA), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Thomas Petri (R-WI), Ed Royce (R-CA), Pete Stark (D-CA), Charles Stenholm (D-TX), Billy Tauzin (D-LA), Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), Michael Turner (R-OH), and Peter Visclosky (D-IN).

 

Hearings, New Bill Target Saudi Arabia

Pressure on Saudi Arabia has also increased, although not to the level being placed on Syria.There has been a low level of criticism of Saudi Arabia for some time, mostly focusing on its alleged civil rights violations and lack of religious freedoms. Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attack however, with most of the terrorists being Saudi nationals, criticism has increased and the focus has shifted to accusations that Saudi Arabia is financing and otherwise supporting terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda as well as Hamas.

Israel-first members of Congress responded quickly to a Sept. 17 New York Times report that (unnamed) U.S. law enforcement officials estimate that 50 percent of Hamas’s budget comes from Saudi Arabia. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher dismissed the report, saying that he was sure no Saudi government funds were going to Hamas, but acknowledging that private donations are hard to track and stop. At about the same time, the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security held a hearing on Saudi financing of terrorist-related activities in the U.S. The hearing bordered on anti-Muslim demagoguery, with charges that the Saudi royal family is funneling billions of dollars a year to build mosques and fund American Muslim organizations, implying that this somehow poses a danger to the U.S.

Then, on Sept. 24, Ackerman, speaking at a hearing of the House Financial Services oversight subcommittee, launched a tirade at Treasury and State Department officials, accusing them of failing “to use all the political, legal, and diplomatic tools at their disposal to block financial support from going from Saudi Arabia to Hamas.”

More seriously, on Sept. 17 Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) introduced H.R. 3137, which would add Saudi Arabia to the list of countries included in the perennial provision in the foreign aid bill prohibiting them from receiving U.S. aid. Weiner’s bill includes 12 “findings” making serious allegations about Saudi Arabia. It deletes Iraq from the list and adds Saudi Arabia to the remaining countries, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Libya and Cuba. H.R. 3137 has four co-sponsors in addition to Weiner, Reps. Peter Deutsch (D-FL), Steve Israel (D-NY), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Ros-Lehtinen.

 

U.S. and Israeli Legislators Hold Joint Meeting on Iranian “Threat”

Since Israel continues to see, or claim to see, Iran as a threat, Israel’s congressional supporters show no sign of lessening their criticisms of Tehran. Recently their main target has been Iran’s nuclear program. In mid-September the so-called “U.S.-Israeli Interparliamentary Commission” held a joint meeting in Washington, DC, widely covered in the Jewish press, “to discuss the growing threat posed to the United States and Israel by Iran.” The meeting was chaired by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), and included on the U.S. side Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Reps. Jane Harman (D-CA) and Curt Weldon (R-PA). Israel was represented by two Labor and two Likud party Knesset members. They heard testimony from Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance Paula DeSutter, as well as long-time Iran critics Gary Milhollin, Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Reuel Marc Gerecht of the American Enterprise Institute. DeSutter described Iran’s alleged efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and to develop more sophisticated and longer range missiles.

Then, on Oct. 15, Feinstein, with Kyl as co-sponsor, introduced S. Con. Res. 73, expressing Congress’s “deep concern” regarding Iran’s failing “to adhere to its obligations under a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency” and its “activities that appear to be designed to develop nuclear weapons.” On Oct. 20 Weldon introduced the same bill in the House, as H. Con. Res. 307, with Reps. Howard Berman (D-CA), Harman and Kirk as co-sponsors.

Also on Oct. 20, Ros-Lehtinen introduced H.R. 3347, with no co-sponsors, which would amend the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act “to prevent the direct and indirect financing of the development of weapons of mass destruction programs by Iran and Libya.”

 

Bush Administration Backtracking on Reducing Israel’s Loan Guarantees

As previously reported, the April Wartime Supplemental Appropriations bill included $9 billion in loan guarantees for Israel, with the stipulation that the amount of guarantees would be reduced dollar for dollar by the amount “for the activities which the president determines are inconsistent with the objectives and understandings reached between the U.S. and Israel”—with a report to Congress describing the amounts to be deducted due no later than Sept. 30. On Sept. 16 the State Department announced that deductions would be made to reflect Israel’s activities in the occupied territories. Two weeks later, however, on Sept. 30, the administration backtracked, saying it had not yet decided on the amount to be deducted.

The Jewish organization Americans for Peace Now, which believes the peace process is the best path to Israel’s security and which objects to Israel’s settlements activities, issued a statement saying that it hopes the administration’s failure to issue the determination “does not reflect an effort to avoid making a determination at all, as indicated by persistent press reports that the administration intends to delay such determination until the entire $9 billion in guarantees has been issued,” and it urged Congress to press the administration on the matter.

So far, however, there has been silence from Congress on the matter, except for the occasional statements praising Israel, criticizing the decision to reduce the loan guarantees, and supporting Israel’s building of the separation wall. One of those statements was by Democratic presidential candidate and former House Minority Leader Gephardt, who told the American Jewish publication Forward that ever since it was first proposed he has strongly supported the wall, regardless of exactly where it runs, because he sees it as “temporary.”

 

Some Good News on the Civil Rights Front

The House finally passed H. Res. 234 “condemning bigotry and violence against Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, South-Asian Americans and Sikh Americans” by voice vote on Oct. 7. The resolution was introduced last May by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), and when passed had 53 co-sponsors, all of whom have been named in previous issues. The Senate version, S. Res. 133, was passed by the Senate on May 22. Although the resolution contains no enforcement mechanism, it does call upon local, state, and federal law enforcement authorities to “work to prevent” and “investigate and prosecute vigorously” bias-motivated crimes against all Americans, including those named in the title.

Perhaps more significant are bills introduced in the House and the Senate aimed at correcting the abuses of the USA PATRIOT Act. In the House, H.R. 3171, introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) on Sept. 24, simply calls for “an appropriate review of recently enacted legislation relating to terrorism to assure that powers granted in it do not inappropriately undermine civil liberties.” In addition to Kucinich, the 21 co-sponsors—all Democrats except for Paul—were Reps. Abercrombie, Baldwin, John Conyers (MI), Sam Farr (CA), Filner, Raul Grijalva (AZ), Luis Gutierrez (IL), Hinchey, Michael Honda (CA), Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX), Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH), Barbara Lee (CA), Jim McDermott (WA), James McGovern (MA), George Miller (CA), Paul, Janice Schakowsky (IL), Jose Serrano (NY), Hilda Solis (CA), Stark, and Lynn Woolsey (CA).

In the Senate, S. 1709 was introduced on Oct. 2 by Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), with six co-sponsors. This bill would “place reasonable limitations on the use of surveillance and the issuance of search warrants.” It also would reinstate the pre-PATRIOT Act standard for seizing business records and would “sunset” several of the act’s most controversial surveillance provisions. Co-sponsors are Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Michael Crapo (D-ID), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Russ Feingold (D-WI), John Sununu (R-NH), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

 

New Anti-Palestinian Measures Introduced

One new anti-Palestinian bill has been introduced in the House and two resolutions condemning Palestinian President Yasser Arafat have been introduced in the Senate, but none of them seem to be attracting much support. The House bill, H.R. 3048, introduced by Rep. Butch Otter (R-ID) Sept. 9, would “limit assistance for the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian People during fiscal year 2004” if the secretary of state determines that the PA “has provided support for acts of international terrorism during the prior 3-month period.” The only co-sponsor is Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO).

The two Senate resolutions both contain several “whereas” clauses amounting to an indictment of Arafat, and conclude with two similar but different “resolved” clauses giving the “sense of the Senate” that Arafat is a hindrance to peace and that the PA should control groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The first, S. Res. 236, was introduced on Sept. 29 by Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (SD) as co-sponsor. The second resolution, S. Res. 241, was introduced Oct. 3 by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) with no co-sponsors.

Shirl McArthur, a retired foreign service officer, is a consultant in the Washington, DC area.

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